Cracky Unoriginal "Elementary" Theory

[alias_sqbr]

Irene is Moriarty.

Sherlock found her interesting which means she must be hella weird.

Narrative causality means she's alive: anyone mentioned that often should at least get a flashback or something. If she's alive she must at the very least be in cahoots with Moriarty, and being the same person is more interesting.

Moriarty has never tried to kill Sherlock.

Irene "died" like all of M's other victims, meaning all Sherlock would have found is a pool of her blood. So all she had to do was store up her blood a little at a time in a freezer (EDIT: Apparently this wouldn't work in real life, see the comments. Does tend to work in TV land though...) Maybe faking her own death was the whole point of the exercise, a distinctive method of death which often leaves no corpse but allows for definite identification of the victim.

And if she is coming back and there is going to be complicated black romance between her and Sherlock then it's definitely better there be no romantic relationship between Sherlock and Joan, or there'd be an icky "women fighting over a man" vibe, rather than "woman trying to protect her platonic male friend from his TERRIBLE ex". Thus the creators' insistence that Joan/Sherlock isn't going to be a thing.

One thing that confuses me about Moriarty is why they didn't predict Sherlock talking to Moran long enough to realise it was all a setup. And if Moriarty did predict it, what was the point? To get rid of a henchman who'd passed their usefulness and mess with Sherlock's head? I guess we'll see!


And now I wait for tomorrow's episode to totally prove me wrong.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Ooh, I like that theory! No-one's seen "Moriarty", and I definitely agree that Irene isn't dead - they've carefully established a survivable murder method and mentioned that not all the bodies were found.

Moriarty might not have expected Moran to talk, but even so, there'd still be clues in his silence or death.

[sanguinity]

They've also established that Holmes was too messed up on drugs at the time to be an effective detective.

[lilacsigil]

Which is also a red flag! If someone had frozen blood and tipped it on the floor, there would be a good few hours where you'd be able to tell the difference between that and fresh blood, but if Irene can count on Sherlock being off his game and not looking for something like that (or not being fast enough finding the "murder" scene), she'd be set.

[alias_sqbr]

Didn't Holmes only get really messed up after Irene died? Admittedly, this was in his own judgement.

[sanguinity]

As he told it, yeah. The question is how fast he fell apart. I think the show left themselves enough room to go with, "No, he was too compromised by grief to detect a faked death," should they want to.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah that makes sense.

[alias_sqbr]

they've carefully established a survivable murder method and mentioned that not all the bodies were found.

Exactly! And quite subtly, too, took me a while to think about it that way.

[tree]

okay i really hope that irene is actually dead because the 'j/k not dead after all!' cliché is old and i'm really hoping elementary is better than that.

[moonvoice]

I'm in this camp. Hoping Irene isn't dead, and that they didn't take Sherlock's knowledge for granted, because it's actually pretty easy to identify old / stored / refrigerated blood over blood shed from a living person, and if Sherlock didn't identify that himself, the police certainly would have. This show doesn't seem to be in the habit of conveniently forgetting the intelligence of its cast, so I think even if Irene *would* be alive, they'd have to come up with a better way of getting all that blood on the ground outside of storing.

[alias_sqbr]

Hmm! What if the blood was sitting for a long time before anyone noticed? Would that help? (I know nothing of blood, sorry)

[moonvoice]

Blood stored in a refrigerator goes off after a while (like any meat or blood brought from a butcher, for example), and that shows signs of decay and rot that wouldn't be present in living blood. For Irene to have speculatively stored enough in a refrigerator, the first batch would likely have spoiled by the time the last batch had been taken. Even if the blood had been sitting on the ground a long time, there's - from memory - signs that it would have spilled from a *living* person, vs. a dead person, vs. cold storage.

Blood that's been frozen and thawed causes ice crystals to form in the cells, and that - under a microscope - shows clear signs of damage to the cells (kind of how freezing meat can change the texture and taste of a meat, which his due to the ice crystals of the water in cells actually damaging and destroying the cell walls and tissues as they form). Even if it's frozen well (i.e. cryogenically), signs of freezing can still be noticeable.

And both of those things are visible under a microscope, unfortunately. I mean, shows have done it before, you know, I think I've seen it in a Law & Order or an SVU, but it's one of those moments where it's like 'uh oh, didn't consult with forensics' or 'uh oh, hoping the audience didn't pick that one up.' And you know, a lot of shows do that to their audience (except maybe Bones, who actually have some pretty good scientific / forensic consultants, given the incredulity of some of their death scenes), so it wouldn't be entirely *surprising* if Elementary did it - they'd be joining a long line of procedurals who have done just that.

I guess I just, personally, would be disappointed. One of the things I love about Elementary is that Gregson and his team actually seem to be really on the ball, intelligent and able to also solve cases alongside Sherlock, rather than being entirely dependent on him? And I was hope that sort of scriptwriting / plot courtesy would also extend to the crew/s at Scotland Yard in the UK. /raaaamble.

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! Now if the show turns out to be as ignorant as me I can say "That's impossible!" and feel all superior :)

[moonvoice]

But you know, also, if it's impossible, it's like a win/win - superiority + Irene being alive! :D

[sqbr]

Hee, very true!

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah there's a reason I described it as cheesy :) Though I like the idea of Irene!Moriarty enough that I'd forgive them.

[trouble]

This is my theory.

[alias_sqbr]

Great minds think alike :D

[moonvoice]

The 'she's not actually dead' (or 'he's not actually dead') thing is such a trope that I'm almost hoping they don't do it, though whatever happens, happens in that respect. We also never got flashbacks of Joan killing her patient, despite this being referred to many times (especially in the first 6 episodes), and I don't think he's going to be revealed as alive either. So that may be a stylistic format within the actual series itself, because they've fairly consistently managed to avoid flashbacks on many issues at this stage (from Sherlock's stay in rehabilitation, to flashbacks of his time in London, to flashbacks of Joan's time as a surgeon).

The pool of blood thing is definitely an interesting theory (that it was faked), but it would be disappointing personally, since forensically stored blood is easy to pick up on, almost ridiculously so - it only needs to be shoved under a microscope, something I'm almost certain Sherlock or Scotland Yard would have done themselves in the process of checking it was actually her blood. So... oh man, I'd be so disappointed if that were the case. If she's alive, I hope they think of a more creative way of explaining the pool of her blood on the floor (i.e. that she did actually bleed out, but was immediately transfused with stored blood, or that she was placed in an ice bath and transfused, that kind of thing).

And I wonder how much they're following the commonly accepted psychology of Moriarty that he is generally bored with life since he knows so much, and perhaps got bored of Sherlock not knowing who he was. Not sure there. Be interesting to see what happens next episode, and indeed for the back seven. I'm really enjoying this season so far.

[alias_sqbr]

I didn't realise about how easy it is to tell that blood has been stored, those are better options.

he is generally bored with life since he knows so much, and perhaps got bored of Sherlock not knowing who he was

That would make sense! The trail had gotten cold so Moriarty decided to liven things up.

[sanguinity]

It's very much a trope, and one that I'm tired of. And fridge backstories are very much a trope, and lo, I am also very tired of that one. (Also, Irene Adler is the one who outwitted Sherlock Holmes: she has no business being the fridged girlfriend wtf!) All signs point to me be cranky no matter what they do.

But they've seemed trope-aware enough up until now -- and, likewise, misogyny-aware -- that I'm kind of hoping that they've got a way of doing "she's not dead" that's going to be worth it? (Not placing money on it or anything. Just... hoping.)

[moonvoice]

But they've seemed trope-aware enough up until now -- and, likewise, misogyny-aware -- that I'm kind of hoping that they've got a way of doing "she's not dead" that's going to be worth it? (Not placing money on it or anything. Just... hoping.)

Yes, I'm hoping whatever they do, they make it work. I have been refreshed and pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the scriptwriters in this to be quite mature and make mature choices (and the actors / director etc. too), and it's quite unlike many procedurals I've seen as a result. So fingers crossed? Much with the hoping. :)

[alias_sqbr]

Irene Adler is the one who outwitted Sherlock Holmes: she has no business being the fridged girlfriend wtf!

This is one of the main motivations behind me coming up with the theory.

[hhw]

passing by via DW-network, irrestibly drawn in by any mention of Elementary. sorry to be bearer of bad news, but there are no new episodes until Jan 31. Then there will be 5 in a row, including the extra post-SuperBowl one.

[alias_sqbr]

Aw :( Well, thank you for telling me!

[lea_hazel]

It's a silly trope, but if it means more Irene, it's definitely worth it. Also, I would normally do anything for a really properly creepy female villain. Alice on Luther is nice but doesn't quite cut it.

[alias_sqbr]

Man, me too, even if it's not Irene I would love a female Moriarty SO MUCH.